So before I broke into animation, I kept trying to draw comic books that no one would be interested in reading except for a small handful of people. The last one I worked on was called Gagaku Berceuse when published in Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga, but was going to be changed to Ghost Ensemble if I had actually stuck with it and signed the contracts. I won't go into the how and why of that decision.

Anyway, this is a partial character lineup of some of the main and some of the minor characters. These are all circa 2006-2007 and some of them I absolutely hate looking at. From left to right we have:

Vega - Twin sister of Pol. in the story she is traveling the world with their grandparents and warns Pol of the japanese instruments being haunted.

Pol - Protagonist of the story. He's a college student and musical genius, though emotional and psychological reasons have sort of 'frozen him in one place,' afraid to take too many chances. Aside from school, Pol is something of a shut in.

Erika - Has a strong affection for Pol, and tries to get to know him better, though he doesn't seem to act on her advances. She's a math major and very practical. She denies all supernatural occurrences, even though she herself is haunted by her sister. As a result, she never sleeps in her apartment, staying up all night and will often nod off in inconvenient places.

Nova - Lives next door to Pol and is a supernatural buff. She's put together her own curriculum at the college they all attend so she can get a degree in Paranormal studies. She does in fact have an affinity for being a psychic and pushes Pol towards finally accepting the spirits.

Fuyuki - Is the main romantic interest of the story and died in the Edo period, frozen to death. Her spirit is now attached to a Jamisen that Pol's grandparents sent him from Japan. When she was awoken by Pol, she mistook him for her lost love Hoshi.

Yasu - Also died in the Edo period, decapitated while on an assassination mission. Her spirit is attached to the Shakuhachi flute that she played while disguised as a zen monk (I forget what they're called, the ones with the baskets on their heads).

Kotone - Is a courtesan who was killed by mistake when Yasu's mission went awry. Her spirit is attached to the Koto that she played in life.

Yuuki - Was an assistant in the kitchen of the inn where all of the girls died. She was stabbed through the heart. Her spirit is attached to Taiko drum she was given as a gift. One of her only possessions.

Sylvan - Is a girl that Pol was attracted to, but either was rejected, or something.. if I remember, her character became less and less important as the story was fleshed out. She was an actress and dancer, and Pol would collaborate with her on performances, writing special scores for her monologues and dance recitals and shit.

There are a few characters whose designs I hadn't finalized before abandoning the project: Pol had two close male friends and Nova had two male underlings. This was one of the first stories I actually approached the outline to properly and when I gave it to my friend Erick Melton to flesh out, did not change drastically. Usually he would have to add and change so much to make it an actual story that made sense and had actual story arcs. And if you read this whole thing... wow, you don't have anything BETTER to do?

Oh, I forgot to mention, this was supposed to be my idea of doing a love comedy/harem style story. Maybe making most of the girls in the love triangle surrounded by death and/or in fact dead was a bad idea?

Welllll just based on what you've said so far, this could easily be mistaken for a hit series. Easily. ^_^; A solid running premise, brimming with dramedic potential, and even multiple era settings to liven things up visually.

[/am jelly]

o yeah, and really nice facial variations, despite them being roughly the same age group (i.e. not-an-old-bag) ;D

Well, thank you. I think we had a pretty solid premise... I haven't really kept in touch with my writer friend, and coming back to this project without him would be wrong.I have wanted to go rework one of my older stories though...

There was a single short story published by TokyoPop in their Rising Stars of Manga volume 5... but I was looking over it and I'm way too embarrassed to post the pages. Things that seemed okay to me back then, that just scream out at me now, after these past couple years learning about storyboarding. I know comics are not the same as storyboards, but there are just certain things that apply to both, or can be applied to tell a better story... why am I typing so much this late at night??I should go to bed.